AIE (Automatic Image Enhancement) is a technology that operates on sampled images and invokes image processing operations on the sampled images based on analysis of the images. Automatic image enhancement automatically corrects image deficiencies through adjustments of exposure, contrast, sharpness, color balance and saturation. After analyzing the sampled image, automatic image enhancement techniques automatically determine conservative corrective actions, to perform on the image. A determined and appropriate image processing technique can then be applied to the image. Specifically, automatic image enhancement techniques can be performed in a fully automatic mode, where conservative image processing parameters can be selected to ensure that the image quality does not become worse.
The aim of image enhancement is to improve the interpretability or perception of information in images for human viewers, or to provide better input for other automated image processing techniques. Print applications such as photo books and yearbooks often contain photos (e.g., images) that can benefit from the use of AIE. Subject images often have ancillary images that are utilized to frame the image with a border or provide a thematic background and watermark effect. It is rarely desirable to apply AIE to the ancillary images because AIE will attempt to saturate the color of images that are deliberately unsaturated and light.
Moreover, the actual bits representing the watermark must be scattered throughout the file in such a way that they cannot be identified and manipulated. And finally, the digital watermark must be robust enough so that it can withstand normal changes to the file, such as reductions from lossy compression algorithms. Existing server and freeflow process manager applications do have the ability to apply AIE to all images in a print job; however, such applications do not distinguish between subject images that should be enhanced and ancillary images that should not be enhanced.
Based on the foregoing it is believed that a need exists for an improved technique for the selective application of AIE based on the characteristics of the subject images. Additionally, a need exists for identifying images in a file that should not be acted upon by AIE.